A few years ago, a person could say, "I am Arab," and believe it. He would believe in this affiliation, as an insurance policy, or a mosaic of language, history and culture, and usually religion. A Sudanese, for example, thought that there was a thread binding him to an Iraqi, no matter how distant their countries. This belief was in a common destiny, irrespective of the relations among rulers and regimes. Arab weakness should be transitory. The nation can rise again, no matter how late it is. It will take its natural position among nations, which have also experienced periods of decline. Arabs used to sympathize with each other, if their countries were invaded, or if a city was hit by an earthquake, or consumed by dictatorship. Certainly, Arabs used to feel upset or disgusted by those who trade in Arabism. There were those who would use religious slogans to support the continuation of dictatorship and cover the growing cries from prison cells. There were the lies that would justify the authoritarianism and economic decline, by invoking the need to fight the holy battle. Despite this, Arabs saw their national affiliation as a guarantee against the fracturing of their identity and their states, opening the door to sub-national identities that would only bring civil wars, and long lines of funerals. If we leave aside the lies, and the excessive diplomacy and politeness, can you say today, dear reader, "I am Arab" in the same way you did a few years ago? Don't you feel a great deal of confusion and embarrassment before you pronounce this phrase? Most likely, you want to avoid such an uncomfortable thing. Everything you hear and see suggests that those we used to call Arab are no more. It would not be strange to learn that this Arab had died in one of the civil wars ravaging our countries, or had been killed in a suicide attack carried out by al-Qaida or one of its sister organizations. Perhaps the person was asphyxiated by the slogans and lies. Do not rush to accuse me of exaggeration, or despair. Imagine that you are in Beirut, Damascus, Baghdad, Sanaa, Bahrain, or somewhere else. Can you say today that you are Arab, the way that you did a few years ago, or that your true identity is much narrower, narrower than the borders of the country whose passport you carry? The pan-Arab identity, which used to include all those living on Arab land, has been shredded. Look at what is taking place in your country. Do you have the same feeling when a victim falls in an area with a majority of residents from a different sect? Do you quickly ask about the sectarian affiliation of the residents of the neighborhood in which a car bomb has exploded? Based on which motives do you support a given side in Iraq? On what criteria do you support the Syrian revolution or the regime? How do you explain the division of Lebanese and Iraqis over the Syrian conflagration? The pan-Arab identity that for centuries was inclusive and tolerant of Arab and non-Arab minorities has been shredded. Is it not strange that Nuri al-Maliki is unable to find a serious political partner from Tikrit or al-Anbar? Is it not strange that Iraq is not big enough for al-Maliki and Masoud Barzani? Or that Beirut is not big enough for Hasan Nasrallah and Saad Hariri? Is it not strange that there is talk in Syria about statelets, so that the Alawites can sleep in their region, and the Sunnis in theirs, and the Kurds in theirs, while the Christians head for the Canadian embassy? Is it not shameful to hear about a bloody incident in an Egyptian village, because of a rumor, and that the settlement agreement sponsored by the police involves moving the Copts out? This is not Egypt, and this is not Syria, and this is not Lebanon. I know that many people have been killed in this or that Arab country. We are at the beginning of the process, and not its end, but the most dangerous thing that happened, after the shredding of Arab identity, is the killing of an exceptional victim whose identity we have tried to hide. The name of the victim is coexistence. We love "clean" regions, unpolluted by "the other." This is why our states are coming apart and our cities are being eroded, overrun by vagabond fighters carrying a new dictionary, and many coffins.
